THE WINTER GUEST
UK, 1997, 108 minutes, Colour.
Emma Thompson, Phyllida Law, Gary Hollywood, Eileen Cockburn, Sheila Reid.
Directed by Alan Rickman.
The Winter Guest is grim. Opened out from a play, audiences may find it too dour, too contrived and too dialogue-driven. However, if you like a serious look at relationships, this film could be rewarding.
Phyllida Law and Emma Thompson (actual mother and daughter) play mother and daughter, daughter depressed, remembering her husband, mother incessantly commenting and criticising, always right. But there are three other pairs of characters. The daughter's teenage son encounters a girl who fancies him, two ageing ladies go to a funeral (their favourite pastime) and two thirteen year olds (with a propensity for swearing) play truant. The action takes place during one day. Who is the guest? Winter, so much in evidence in the snowbound town and the frozen sea? Death, which permeates the film? It is sensitively directed by actor, Alan Rickman, a heightened and stylised naturalistic drama exploring emotions. OCIC award winner in Venice, 1997.
1. The impact of the film? Human drama? Conflicts? Resolutions?
2. The title, the references? The transition from play to the screen? Opening out the story? The dialogue – stage dialogue or film dialogue?
3. The town, the street, the coast, ice, the beach, the cave, the house? The funeral? The wintry atmosphere and its evocation? The piano score and its mood?
4. The structure of the film: the four couples, the intercutting of the stories? Editing? The stories commenting on each other?
5. The story of Frances and Elsbeth? Age, the generations? The walk, discussions of mortality, waking, dreaming? The concern for Alex? Phyllida Law and Emma Thompson as real-life mother and daughter?
6. The mother and daughter relationship, Frances upset, the photos, Alex, concerned about him, the mother and her talk, the bath, not hearing? Frances’s anxiety about her mother? The songs? The telescope, the memory? Jamie – in the house? Each needing the other – declaring that they did not need each other? The hair? Frances wanting to go to Australia, with Alex? The decisions, or not? Jamie and the ties? Frances and her dislikes? Nurture, control? Her mother’s hold over her? The telescope? The comment about the brochure …?
7. The walk, their being close, the distance between them? Talking, the stick, memories, anger? Frances alone? Elsbeth and the boy – the toffee, the cat, the photos? Touching? The cigarettes, tea? The monologue of Elsbeth and her name, the two women together, the embrace? Death? Australia and the future?
8. Alex and Nita, Alex ready to go, his relationship with his mother, his grandmother? Teenage? The pie, the bike? Nita watching him? Her background, age? The snow, fixing the bike, on the ice, her feet, home? Beauty and warmth? The issue of sexual encounter or not? The photos – Alex’s future? Nita?
9. The two older women, their dress, age, the bus, arranging funerals, the paper? Lily and her being strong? The cremation?
10. Tom, Sam, truants, playing soccer, their mothers, the cave, fear? Sick, stone, the cats? The encounter with Elsbeth? The ice and the cat, the monologue? Sam, the search? A portrait of two boys playing on the beach and talking?
11. The birthday, winter, death, the degrees of connection and separation? The overall effect of insight into human nature and characters?
